Faux Finishes in Paint and the Paintastrophe March 22, 2012
Finished glazing technique in first floor bathroom.
We are finally done with our paint finish. I knew how I wanted the paint to look, but I wasn’t exactly sure how to make it happen. I researched paint techniques online, surfed Pinterest for a few hours, and made two trips to Lowes before I decided to just wing it. I bought a natural sponge roller, a hunk of natural sponge, a feathering brush, and some chocolate glaze.
I worked the glaze in two layers, the first one to get a mottled finish over most of the wall. Once it was dry, I came back over the top to bring up more depth. I mostly used the roller for the main wall, working the glaze into the corners with the feathering brush. One clear coat later, and it was exactly how I wanted it to look.
That’s when the paintastrophe happened. The low tack tape that we used pulled all the paint off down to the drywall!! Primer, paint, two layers of glaze, and clear coat…all torn off. It was terrible. Horrifying even. So, we started over: sanding down the edge, feathering in the orange base and brown glaze, then finally the clear coat. It added several days to the bathroom (mainly because I was a giant chicken about feathering in the glaze) but it’s finally done. It’s only a matter of time until we have a working toilet on the first floor now (right?)
Bathroom Paint Finishes (On the Fly) March 3, 2012
One step closer to finishing the bathroom comes in the form of nearly free paint from our neighborhood home improvement shop. I wanted a color that would pull out the spice colors in the glass tile, but I was getting a little lazy with all the decisions that needed to be made (paint color for three rooms, grout color, hinges, etc). I decided to stop by the Family Discount Store on 6th Avenue in Des Moines, where they have gallons of paint for $5, white $8, to see what there was already mixed. I liked the idea that we could reuse a paint that someone else had already mixed, and I’m never upset about saving a few bucks on our way through tens of thousands of dollars of renovations.
I bought this paint color, thinking that it would be nice in a faux finish, mixed with some creamy white, but then once it got on the wall, I liked it so much in it’s intensity. Now I’m thinking I might do a coffee color glaze over the top of this in some sort of antique plaster look. The best part of this phase of the project? My husband asking me about the application of the glaze. My husband of almost 17 years, thinking that I have this whole thing planned out. Charming. Stay tuned for the yet-to-be-determined glaze…or my decision that it looks fine as it is and leaving it!
Hatton House Diaries 